30. THE HOUSE OF TRINITARIAN FRIARS

The Trinitarian Friars seem to have been
making efforts to obtain a house in Oxford as
early as 1286, or already had students at the
university, for in this year (23 February, 1285-6)
Ralph of Reading and three others were 'proctors of the house of St. Robert of Knaresburgh
and Oxford, and of the Order of the Holy
Trinity for the redemption of captives in the
Holy Land.' (fn. 1) In 1293, after an inquisition held
in this or the previous year, Edmund earl of
Cornwall conferred on the minister and brethren
of the Holy Trinity at Oxford a plot of land
156 yards long and 78 yards wide, extending
from the East Gate at Oxford to the gate of the
canons of St. Frideswide or Teckew Gate (i.e.
lying between Trinity Lane, now Rose Lane,
and the City Ditch), and built a chapel for them.
The city claimed a rent of 13s. 4d. from this
land. (fn. 2)

According to the rule of the order approved
by Innocent III a friary consisted normally of
the minister, three clerks and three lay brothers;
but these numbers were omitted in the revised
rule of 1267. (fn. 3) Wood says:—

The constant number that were here to reside were a
minister and five brethren, who had liberty also given
them to take in novices of their order to be there
trained up in Academical Learning,
at the expense of the convents that sent them
hither. (fn. 4)

Before the death of Edward I the Trinitarian
Friars acquired from the prior and convent of
St. Frideswide without royal licence the chapel
of the Holy Trinity within the East Gate,
together with a shop and two plots of vacant
ground within the walls. (fn. 5) The breach of the
statute of Mortmain was pardoned (1 February,
1310-11) after an Inquisitio ad quod damnum on
payment of a fine of 20s. (fn. 6) and at the same time
the mayor and commonalty of Oxford granted
to the friars in mortmain three plots of vacant
land in the town, already held by them for a
term of years; the commonalty reserved the
right of free access to the town walls when
necessary to repair or guard them, and free entry
through two posterns to lands extending from
the Smithgate to the East Gate of the town.
These plots, forming a long narrow slip 473
yards long and about 8 yards wide, were known
as 'the Underwall.' (fn. 7) Two years later the friars
had licence to remove from their dwelling-place
without the East Gate to their new site within
the walls subject to the above conditions and to
the obligation of making a chantry in the chapel
of the Holy Trinity by the East Gate for the
founders and benefactors—the chaplains to be
maintained out of the place beyond the gate. (fn. 8)
The friars had already obtained permission from
the warden and scholars of Merton College and
the vicar of St. Peter's in the East to have a free
oratory for their use and a chantry and cemetery
for the burial of brethren of the order, (fn. 9) and
the Bishop of Lincoln confirmed this grant. (fn. 10)

In 1314 William de Parys, the minister, and
the brethren of the house, with the permission
of Henry de Ledes, provincial, purchased from
the mayor and commonalty a tenement and plot
of ground, probably within the wall, subject to a
yearly rent of 13s. 4d. (fn. 11) Thus for the various
lands which they held of the town they paid a
rent of 26s. 8d. (fn. 12)

The friars of this house were authorized to
solicit alms in 1314; (fn. 13) and again in 1329
Edward III granted them protection for two
years while collecting alms once a year in the
churches by virtue of an indulgence from the
pope. (fn. 14) At the request of Henry, earl of Lancaster, they obtained licence in 1331 to acquire
in mortmain land and rent, not held in chief,
to the yearly value of 100s., (fn. 15) but it does not appear whether they actually acquired such land.
William of Allerton, the minister of the house,
demised a plot of vacant ground between Runceval Hall and the East Gate for fifty years to
Merton College in 1327 for 18d. a year. (fn. 16) In
1333 John de Drayles, rector of St. Mildred's,
mentioned them in his will, (fn. 17) and in 1349 John
son of Walter Wrenche of Milton, spicer, bequeathed to them five quarters of corn. (fn. 18)

The Black Death seems to have been specially
fatal to these friars. They did not entirely
cease to exist, for in 1361 Henry of Malmesbury
bequeathed 13s. 4d. to the Trinitarian Friars of
Oxford. (fn. 19) But from about 1351 the chapel
without the East Gate was served only by one
brother of the order, who was sent from the
house of the Trinitarian Friars at Hounslow. (fn. 20)
Their possessions within the walls, from the
postern near Smithgate to East Gate (i.e. the
Underwall), were sold to the founder of New
College in 1379. (fn. 21) The king took possession of
their land without the East Gate as an escheat
in 1351 and held it till 1391, when, upon the
complaint of the burgesses that the friars held
this plot of them at a rent of 13s. 4d. which for
many years had not been paid, Richard II allowed
the mayor and commonalty to seize the land as a
distraint. (fn. 22)

In 1447 John Wodell or Wodale, minister of
the friars of Hounslow, granted to the mayor
and commonalty of Oxford all his lands, rents,
and tenements within and without the town of
Oxford, known as 'Trynytees,' and also the
chapel of Holy Trinity, first on a seven years'
lease (fn. 23) and subsequently on a ninety-nine years'
lease. (fn. 24) John Dobbis, mayor of Oxford in 1471,
conferred the chapel with its lands and rent on
Robert Alrede, hermit, for the term of his life,
on condition that he should maintain a chaplain
there. (fn. 25) In 1486 Robert Gaguin, general or
'greater' minister of the order, wrote to the
university that the chapel of the Holy Trinity,
long in possession of the order, had been dishonestly sold to the town by Friar John Wodell,
and prayed the university to assist the provincial
minister to recover it. (fn. 26) Two years later the
mayor and burgesses, 'moved not only by
scruples of conscience but rather by zeal and
devotion desiring to rejoice in the suffrages of
the order, at the special request of very many
venerable men, and also for a certain sum of
money,' agreed to surrender the chapel and land
to Richard Lancing, provincial of the Trinitarian
Friars and minister of Modenden, reserving the
annual rent of 13s. 4d. (fn. 27) The friary now
became known as Trinity Hall; its head appears
to have been appointed by the provincial or
minister of Modenden; (fn. 28) and secular students
were among its inmates. Thus Edward Chamber
of Trinity Hall, who was bound over in 1510
to keep the peace towards Master Slepinden the
principal, and towards all scholars of the hall,
was not a friar. (fn. 29) John Gregory, of the order
of the Holy Trinity, B.Can.L., who was
dispensed from taking part in general processions
in Lent, 1526-7, because he had to hear confessions, was the last principal. He was also
minister of Modenden. (fn. 30) According to Wood,
the hall was at the dissolution occupied only by
a priest, an anchoret, and other scholars who
lived by alms from the colleges. (fn. 31)

Trinity Hall passed into the king's hands as
part of the possessions of Modenden Friary,
and in 1540 was leased for twenty-one years
to Robert Parette of the household. (fn. 32) Wood
identifies him with Robert Perrot or Porrett,
B.Mus., of Magdalen College, and states that in
Mary's reign he converted part of it into a barn
and stable, and the other part with the chapel
into several tenements, paying rent to the city
towards the relief of four poor bedesmen called
'Trinity men,' who wore a habit resembling
that of the Trinitarian Friars and went begging
about the city. But in 1563, 'being by the
mayor and his brethren reformed, they were
appointed to be bedells of beggars, and each
to take a ward every Friday to beg in (though
they still use some kind of prayers) and to
wear a badge of tin and a new ox upon their
coats.' (fn. 33)

Footnotes

5.
Cartul. of St. Frideswide's (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), i, 387.
Inq. a.q.d. 80 (2); Pat. 4 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 24.
The old Trinity Chapel is variously described in the
documents as being infra, supra, juxta, ultra (i.e. on the
other side of) the East Gate. It is clear that Wood
is right and his editor wrong about the two Trinity
chapels; Wood-Clark, City, iii, 326-7.